


Acceptance

by slayerivy



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-21 21:16:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 16,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/602165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slayerivy/pseuds/slayerivy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Succubus comes to Sunnydale- now Buffy has to worry about this *and* Spike.</p><p>This story was originally written and posted online in 2001 - it's been cleaned up a little and hopefully it still works.  It was written over the summer in between Season 5 & Season 6.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them for fun.

“Acceptance”

Chapter One

Magic Box, 10:00 a.m.

Rupert Giles slammed his glasses down on the table and rubbed his eyes. Staying up all night translating ancient texts had taken its toll. He glanced around the Magic shop which had just opened for business an hour earlier and was still empty of customers.

Anya sat behind the counter tallying yesterday’s receipts with a “demonic” smile on her face. Rupert couldn’t figure out whether Anya’s knack for all things financial was healthy or not. On the one hand it was a very human trait to like money and things of value, but on the other hand, it was too close to the sin of greed for his liking.

Rupert studied his employee intently for a few moments until her head snapped up and she smiled widely.

“Giles! I think we’re actually going to make a profit this quarter. I really think the web site I designed is going to boost our sales through the roof!”

Giles smiled weakly at her and Anya frowned back at him. “What’s wrong with you this morning? You look like you haven’t slept at all and you’re not even happy that we will be able to pay all the bills this month and have enough left over to buy me a car.” 

“A car? Anya, you don’t drive.”

“Sure I do, just not when you’re around.” The door chime jingled and Anya jumped to attention. “Customers!”

Willow and Tara entered the shop and Anya’s face fell with disappointment. “Oh, it’s just them.” 

Willow rolled her eyes at the ex-demon shop girl. “It’s nice to see you too, Anya. Giles, you look awful!”

“Thank you, Willow.”

“No, I . . . I mean are you okay?”

Giles put his glasses back on his face and gestured towards the pile of books on the reading table.

“I’ve just been up all night attempting to translate this 2,000 year old text. I’m thoroughly exhausted and frustrated. I think it’s beyond my capabilities.”

“Wh-what is it for?” stammered Tara.

“It’s a chronicle of the deeds and genealogy of various demons, including some of the first recorded accounts of vampires before the age of Christ. But it’s written in several different languages. The later pages are in Latin and Greek, some are in Egyptian hieroglyphics and some I cannot even identify at all.”

Willow leafed through the old dusty texts and shook her head. “If it’s beyond you then it’s definitely beyond me, Giles. I don’t know where we would find a living being who would even have the faintest idea of what any of these languages are.”

The door chime jingled again to reveal a real customer who Anya scurried over to help immediately. “Welcome to the Magic Box! How may I be of assistance to you?”

The young woman dressed in jeans and a gray tank top peered out from behind her purple sunglasses and took a deep breath. “Yes! I would like the following items: four focusing crystals, twelve ounces of wolf’s bane, four eyes of newt, and that’s Newt, not the cheap salamander knockoffs, thirteen drops of virgin’s tears, some jasmine incense, a black beeswax candle and a new dagger.”

She reached into her black leather backpack and pulled out an ornate, yet broken knife. “I broke mine. Also, do you have an on-staff witch? Or maybe you could give me a reference of some one good in town?”

The four occupants of the shop stared at this strange woman. She had jet-black hair pulled tightly up on top of her head in a “genie” style hairdo. She wore black nail polish on her finely manicured fingernails and around her neck she wore a hematite crystal in the shape of a circle. She was petite – no taller than Willow – but the direct and commanding manner in which she spoke made her seem much larger than she was.

Giles decided to step into the conversation. “I’m Mr. Giles, this is my shop. May I ask for what kind of spell those items will be used?”  
“A demon location spell.” She stated this matter-of-factly.

Anya looked at her nervously. “Why would you need to do a demon location spell?”

The woman took off her sunglasses revealing her glittering red eyes. “I’m looking for my brother.” Giles ran to the weapons trunk and pulled out a very large ax. “Demon! Get out of my shop!”

The woman giggled as Giles attempted to hit her with the ax. She grabbed a hold of the ax handle and ripped it out of Giles’ hands effortlessly.

“Chill out, Jeeves! I’m not here to hurt any of you; I just need help in finding my brother, Charley. He’s missing and I know he’s in this town, but there are so many damned demons here I have to do a specific spell to find him.”

“It’s Giles, not Jeeves! Anya? Do you have any idea what kind of demon she is?” Anya looked the demon woman up and down.

“I’m not sure, Giles. She might be . . . although there was talk of them dying out . . . I think she might be a . . .”

The demon sighed impatiently, “I’m a succubus! And yes, we’re still around, what’s left of us anyway.”

Tara gulped, “A suc-succubus? That’s a sex demon, right? You, you rape humans while they sleep?”

“No! We do not rape people! God! That was just a bad translation of the demonic chronicles. It seems that whoever translated it got the phrase “make love under the cover of darkness” and “rape in the night” mixed up. Don’t get me wrong, my kind have been know to bend the sexual rules from time to time, but we cannot physically force ourselves on a human being, unless…” she smiled at Giles “you want us to of course. So you can relax Mr. Giles, I won’t be fondling you anytime soon.”


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

 

Chapter 2

Summer’s Residence, 10:15 a.m.

“Dawn!” Buffy was agitated. Here she had made her little sister breakfast and the little twit wasn’t answering her. “Fine! Your omelet is going to get cold!”

Dawn bounded down the stairs to the kitchen to see her sister standing there with her hands on her hips looking miffed. “What?” Dawn asked.

“What took you so long? And why are you still in your pajamas?”

“Buffy! It’s summer vacation! I want to veg out! Is there anything wrong with that?”

“No, but maybe I’m just a little jealous that you don’t have to go to summer school to make up for some of the lost time last semester.”

“I’m sorry, Buffy. I didn’t mean to rub it in.”

“That’s okay. School keeps me out of trouble and it could be worse. We could have to get full time jobs.”

“True. Woo hoo for child support and watcher’s stipends!”

Buffy grabbed her little sister and gave her a big squeeze. “Eat your omelet, slacker.”

“Yum! Mushroom and Swiss.”

“Yes, I’m getting better at the whole domestic thing. What are you going to do today, anyway?”

Dawn munched away at her omelet. “I don’t know. Hang around, watch Oprah, do my toenails, go down to the Magic Shop and torture Anya and Giles.” 

“Sounds fun actually. Maybe I’ll just skip school today and live the slacker life.”  
“No! Buffy! You already said you wanted to play catch up. Do you want to be less behind in September or not?”

Buffy pouted. “Yes.”

“Okay, so go to school!”

“You’re beginning to sound a lot like Mom.

Dawn smiled at the thought. “I am?”

“Yeah you are.” Buffy patted Dawn on the head and sped out the door with her backpack in tow.

Dawn grabbed her plate and fork, walked over to the front window and watched Buffy trot down the street. Suddenly, a knocking sound came from the kitchen startling Dawn into dropping her plate onto the couch. Mushrooms and egg went everywhere.

“Oh, crap!” The knocking got louder and more insistent.

Running into the kitchen with the remnants of her breakfast, Dawn whipped open the door to the basement to reveal a very unhappy looking Spike holding a squeeze bottle of Sun block SPF 100 in his left hand and a blood bag of A positive in his right.

“Is she gone?” he asked.

“Yes! But if she wasn’t she sure would know something was going on with all your knocking noises! Duh!”

“I know but the sun is creeping in down there and this crap does not work.” He waved the sun block in her face. “Look at my ear!” Spike’s ear was black and flaky. He’d obviously gotten burnt when he had come up the steps.

Dawn touched his ear gingerly. “Ow!” Spike yelped and hissed at her.

“Eeww! Gross!”

“Again, OW!!”

“Maybe some ice and ointment would help.”

“Or maybe some blood and bourbon would help more.”  
“Ick! For breakfast?”

“Breakfast of all champion vampires! Right, can I use the microwave?”

“Yeah, sure it’s right over, there by the sunny kitchen window. I’ll pull the blinds.”

“Thanks, Niblet.”

Dawn went over to the window and shut the blinds over the sink. “Why do you insist on calling me that?”

“Why not?”

“’Cause I’m fifteen and I’m taller than Buffy now, when I wear heels anyway.”

Spike walked over to the microwave, popped the whole blood bag into it and punched the buttons until it started. “Well, Dawn, it’s just a nick name. A term of endearment, you know?”

“It just implies that I’m less of a person than everyone else. Like Xander calls me Kiddo or Dawnster. Riley used to call me kid all the time and. . .”

“What did Angel call you?”

“Angel didn’t call me anything really. In reality, I’ve never even met him.”

“Well, in your memories what did he call you?”

“Nothing. He never addressed me at all. Not that I can remember really. He’d just refer to me as if I wasn’t there. He’d say ‘what about your sister’ or ‘how is she?’. He never used my name at all.”

Spike retrieved his liquid breakfast from the microwave and started to search the cabinets for some alcohol. “Well I always knew the poof had no bloody imagination. And his social skills were always lacking. God! No alcohol in this kitchen? Do you have any Wheatabix?”

“Cabinet by your knees.”

Spike found the box and sat down at the kitchen counter with the cereal and sipped on his blood. “Hey, thanks for letting me stay here by the way. I should be out of your hair in a couple of days. It’s just until I find a new crypt or abandoned mansion or warehouse or sewer. . .” Spike sighed. “I hate house hunting.”

“I still can’t believe your crypt blew up.”

“Yeah, well when you piss off enough demons, they start to gang up on you. Ask my ex-girlfriends.”

Dawn snickered. “No thank you, but I don’t ever want to see Harmony again.”

“I heartily agree. But you know what? I can deal with the whole blowing up of my crypt, but I just cannot deal with what they called me.”

Dawn put her plate in the sink. “What did they call you?”

“Spike, the Slayer’s pet vampire, traitor, sheep in wolf’s clothing, William the Bloody – The Big Bad turned Good! Damn it! I wish I could go outside for a cigarette!”

Dawn started to giggle at him.

“What’s so bloody funny?”

“The fact that you get so offended by them calling you “good”. I think it’s funny.”

“Yeah. It’s a real laugh riot. You don’t get it do you? I can’t be “evil” because they won’t accept me anymore and I can’t be “good” because you lot won’t accept me either. I’m stuck in between and I can’t seem to do anything to change it. I don’t belong anywhere, except maybe the bloody sewer.”

Dawn sat next to Spike at the counter.

“I accept you.”

“Huh?”

“I accept you, Spike. I don’t completely trust you because of your past, but I trust you enough to let you stay here. I know you’re all Mr. Evil Vamp Guy, but even though you can be horrible . . . you still help us. And I accept you for just what you are.”

“Niblet?”  
“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Dawn smiled at Spike as he looked back at her crunching on his Wheatabix.

“We don’t have to get all mushy about this, do we?”

“Aw! Spike! Somebody needs a hug!” Dawn grabbed him from behind and squeezed his waist then rested her head on his shoulder.

“Ugh! Stop it! This is getting sweet and mushy and I’m going to vomit! Now let go!”

“OK! I’m going to go get cleaned up and then I’m off to the Magic Shop. You can crash on the couch. Buffy shouldn’t be back until after four o’clock so make sure you leave things as you found them and get your dead butt back in the basement before she gets home.”

“Yes ma’am. Wouldn’t want to end up a Big Bad pile of dust.”

Dawn skipped out of the kitchen and about fifteen minutes later ran out the front door yelling to Spike. “Bye Spike! Have a “Good” day!” All she heard in response was a sleepy growl coming from the direction of the couch as Spike buried himself underneath a pink chenille throw blanket.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter 3

Magic Box, 10:30 a.m.

Giles sighed in frustration with the demon customer in his shop. “So, you say your brother, Charley is it?”

“Yes, Charley.”

“He’s missing?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name, Ms. . . .”

“Oh! How rude of me. Alexandra, Alexandra Beaulac.”

Willow wrinkled her forehead. “You have a last name?”

“Yes of course, it was my father’s, although he doesn’t use it very much anymore.”

“But that is not something we’ve come across before, a demon with a first and a last name. Don’t tell me you have a social security number as well?” Giles laughed.

“Yes. How else would I pay my taxes?”

Giles was very surprised now at this response. “Taxes? You pay taxes? That is odd. Anya, when you were a demon did you pay taxes?”

“Hell no! I wish I didn’t have to pay them now. But I know why she does. The succubae and incubi live on the fringes of demon society. Kinda like vampires only more human.”

“What do you mean more human?” asked Tara.

Alex sighed sadly. “She means we’re half-breeds. The only way we can reproduce is if we mate with a human partner. Each one of us has one human parent. In my case it was my father.”

Giles was beginning to think that this so called demon standing in front of him was nothing more than just a young woman frightened about a family member. “So you’re only here to find your brother. You’re not going to harm any humans in Sunnydale?”

“No, of course not. I can’t unless they try to harm my kin or me. Those are ‘The Rules’.”

“Right then, Anya, could you gather up the ingredients she needs and Willow, can you help her with her spell?”

“Uh. . . yeah sure. Do you have the spell written down, Ms. Beaulac?”

“Oh, it’s Alex, just Alex. And yes, I have the spell right here.”

She handed Willow a parchment with strange markings on it. “Hey, Giles. Does this look familiar to you?”

“Yes! It looks just like the language in the chronicle. Alex, can you read this?”

“Of course, it’s Sumerian, post-cuneiform.”

Willow eyed the markings nervously. “But I won’t be able to read it for the spell.”

“Flip it over. The phonetic pronunciations and English translations are on the back.”

Giles’ interest in this woman was definitely peaked. “ And you translated this yourself?”

“Yes, my mother taught me all of the ancient languages she knows.”

“How old is your mother?”

“She’ll be fifteen hundred and three next October.”

A collective gasp went up among the group. Anya seemed impressed. “Wow, she’s even older than I am.”  
“Yes, she’s one of the oldest ones left in our clan.”

Anya thought for a moment. “That’s right. Something’s gone wrong with your people. You’ve started to die off, lots of suicides. Why is that?”

“We’re having a little trouble adjusting to the current views and trends in human sexuality. I mean absolutely everyone’s on birth control these days. None of the incubi can seem to get any women pregnant anymore. Not even in the third world countries for God’s sake! And do not get me started on “safe sex”. Condoms are everywhere and none of us succubae can seem to get knocked up either. It’s all very depressing.”

Willow looked up from the spell in her hands. “Is that why you’re looking for your brother? He’s depressed and suicidal?”

“Yes. See, since our kind can’t do what we used to do with humans. . .”

“And that would be what?” asked Giles.

Anya stepped over to the demon woman and smiled. “Oh, they’d show up, find a sexually mature and fertile human, seduce them and then abscond with the offspring. Am I right?”

Alex reacted with disgust. “God! You make it sound like those children don’t belong to us! They are our kids! Humans don’t live as long as we do so we naturally take the children so they don’t have to watch their human parent grow old and die.”

Willow was confused. “So why is it so hard to reproduce now? I mean humans do it all the time.”

“We can’t hurt or force a human into coupling with us. They have to want to be with us.”

Willow looked into Alex’s red eyes and wrinkled her brow. “Umm. . . no offense or anything, but wouldn’t a typical human be a little, ya know, frightened by the glowing red eyes and general demonishness?”

“Well yeah, but not if we looked like your ultimate fantasy. Like this.” Alex suddenly transformed right before the group’s eyes into a gorgeous, tall, buxom blonde woman in a red mini dress with matching red leather go-go boots. She smiled at them and began speaking in a completely different voice with an English accent. “You see I can be whatever they want me to be, right Mr. Giles?”  
She sauntered sexily over to Giles and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Right now I’m borrowing the image of Mr. Giles’ college day crush, Miss Olivia Wellington. Although I think you might be over exaggerating the size of her bosoms in your head, Rupert.”

Giles shrank away from the woman in horror. “Please. . . stop it . . . this is extremely . . . extremely . . .”

“Embarrassing?” Alex re-morphed into herself. “So it’s no like we can’t, you know, get any action. It’s just we cannot make our human partners forget that they’re human and live in today’s society where STD’s and unwanted pregnancy can be easily prevented. They have to love us and want to conceive with us these days. We can’t just play the love ‘em and leave ‘em game anymore.”

Giles took a large step back from Alex wanting to get a healthy distance from the woman just wearing another’s face. “Well that’s simply horrible for you. Having to be so, so, so human about it. But if you just need to be more human about your reproduction, why all the suicides?”

Alex slumped into a chair at the round reading table. “Rejection. We don’t take rejection very well.”

Tara sat down across from her and ventured a question. “But, but I thought that you could be their fantasy. They wouldn’t reject that would they?”

Alex hung her head down. “That’s the thing. We can’t be their fantasy 24/7. We have to live in their reality, be a part of their lives in order to get close enough to have a long-term relationship. And reality is this!”

Alex’s hands motioned to her body and face in disgust. “Just me. Plain old Alex. The red eyes are easy to get rid of with colored contact lenses and I can always pull a glamour in a pinch, but finding a regular human being who knows what we are and still accepts us without being completely freaked out? Not so easy.”

The group silently sympathized with Alex as she looked like she would almost start to cry. Alex blinked away her impending tears and continued. “Take Charley’s girlfriend of two years. She found out what he was and she flipped out. He tried to explain to her, but she just packed her bags and moved out. I tried to get him to come and stay with me at the beach house for a while but he said he was fine and he’d stay in touch with me every day.”

Anya perked up. “Ooh, you have a beach house?”

“In Malibu, yeah anyway. . .”

“Ooh, Malibu?”

“Anyway! He was devastated, I could tell by his voice. So I went over two weeks ago to check in on him and he was gone. And I’ve been trailing him ever since. I followed his trail here.”

Giles was very concerned about this statement. “His trail? What kind of trail does he leave? Please say it’s not bodies.”

“Credit card receipts. We share expenses so I’ve been following him by where he’s been spending the money. The last couple transactions were here yesterday. One at an ATM downtown and one at a bar called Willy’s”

The Scooby gang winced at the name. Willow shook her head. “Uh oh, Willy’s? That’s a demon bar. Lots of vamps and other baddies. But he’s a demon so I guess he’d fit in just fine.”

Alex snorted angrily. “Yeah, if he’s looking for a fight! Our kind doesn’t mix very well with other demons, generally.”

“Why?” asked Tara.

The door chimed sounded again signaling another customer who Anya went to assist. But as she left she answered Tara’s question. “We’re too human.”

“Who’s too human?” Dawn asked having just entered the shop. Dawn shrunk back when she saw Alex’s red eyes and whispered to Anya, “Who’s the chick with the Marilyn Manson contact lenses?”


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Four

Fairview Cemetery, 2:30 p.m.

Buffy walked swiftly down the quiet Sunnydale street.

“It’s so nice here during the day. Why can’t it just stay that way all the time?” she thought to herself.

Coming around the corner near the cemetery where her mom was buried she noticed some commotion at the gates. There was yellow police crime scene tape all around the entrance. Construction workers were milling around hauling debris out of the graveyard.

“Oh God!” Buffy muttered under her breath as a wave of guilt passed over her. “Please tell me it’s not a murdered person I could’ve saved last night!” Buffy approached quietly and snuck under the tape while one of the policeman’s back was turned. She sprinted through the graves toward the small group of workers and police officers. And that’s when she saw the blackened and broken crypt. It had been virtually blown to smithereens. She then hid behind one of the larger grave markers and listened in on the conversation taking place between a policeman and one of the workers.

The cop was shaking his head in disgust. “I just don’t get people anymore. Don’t they have any respect for the dead? This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this kind of desecration.”

The worker agreed with the cop and said, “Yeah well, that’s not the weirdest thing. I think some one was actually living down there! Check out the list of stuff we found. A television, VCR, bedding, an armchair, candles, a shot gun . . .”

Buffy’s heart started racing as she stared at a beheaded female mannequin being thrown on the pile of debris in a wheel barrel. Then she saw it. Thrown aside and crumpled in a ball next to the crypt was a leather coat. Buffy crawled on her hands and knees over to it and snatched it up in her arms. She ran all the way towards the rear entrance of the graveyard and sat on the ground with it. She held it out in front of her and examined it. It was a long leather coat for sure, but was it his? She emptied the contents of the pockets and came up with a few items: a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, a Zippo lighter, $100 in cash, a Ramones CD and a picture. A picture of her with Willow and Xander at the Bronze, smiling and laughing. This was his, Spike’s coat. Spike was dead. Buffy replaced all the contents of the coat and gathered it back up in her arms. She needed to go home now. She needed to get away from there, right away.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Five

Summers Residence, 3:00 p.m.

Spike was being evil. He couldn’t help himself. He was in Buffy’s room, sitting on her bed and flipping through her photo album. He wanted to see everything. He wanted to know everything. Little five-year-old Buffy stared up at him with a gleeful expression on her face as Joyce tickled her little girl under the chin. They were so happy before. Before the divorce, before the demons came, before him.

Spike felt something suddenly, something he hadn’t felt in years. He felt responsible - responsible for taking some of that little girl’s happiness away.

He looked at little Buffy again. What would it have been like to hold her then? To have rocked her in his arms, to have protected her from the night and all its evil? If he had been there . . . he probably would have eaten her. But if he had been there like he was now, he would have laid down his un-life to make sure that she never shed another tear.

Spike was so lost in his thoughts that he did not hear the front door open and close downstairs. He was unaware of any presence in the house until the faintest sound reached his ears – the sound of a woman’s tears.

Spike tiptoed down the staircase, quiet as the dead, well as quiet as the undead anyway. There was Buffy leaning against the front door sobbing and clutching a leather coat. She buried her face into the collar and slid down the door to the floor. Slowly she began to rock back and forth holding the coat and keening like a wounded animal. Her cries were heart wrenching. Spike felt sick to his stomach at the sight of her in so much pain.

“Why is she so upset? Who ever did this to her will die a slow and horrible death, as long as they’re not human,” he thought.

Spike debated with himself as to whether he should make his presence known. Should he hide like Dawn had told him to or should he attempt to comfort the sobbing slayer?

Spike descended the staircase and knelt down in front of her. “What’s the matter, pet? Why are you crying?”

Buffy gasped at the sound of his voice and looked up into his face. “Spike?”

“Yeah luv, what’s wrong?”

Buffy’s upset expression melted to relief and then quickly to anger. “Spike! What the Hell are you doing in my house?”

“Dawn let me in. What are you doing with the coat? Is that my coat?”

Spike wrestled the coat from her hands and quickly put it on. “Whew! That’s better! I feel naked without it. Where did you find this?”

Buffy could feel her anger and embarrassment begin boil over. “Again Spike! What are you doing here?”

“I needed a place to hide for the day. Some demons blew up my crypt. I had to leave in a hurry. Thanks for gettin’ my leather back. I just can’t be ‘Spike’ without it.”

“And Dawn just let you in? I’m going to have a little chat with her.”

Spike felt a tiny pang of guilt at getting his little hostess in trouble. “Hey, go easy on Bite Size. She was just helping me out. She at least has some sense of charity left in her.”

“Yeah, I’ll knock some ‘sense’ into her.”

Spike attempted to redirect the conversation to another topic other than the fact that he was in her house - again. “So tell me Slayer, why were you crying?”

Buffy looked up into Spike’s piercing blue eyes.

“He can see right through me, I know it”, she thought.

Buffy stood up and went nose to nose with the vampire. “None of your business, Spike! Now get out!”

“I can’t! If you’ve forgotten then let me remind you. It’s three o’ clock in the bleedin’ afternoon and sunny Sunnydale is raining down vampire fatal sunshine!”

“Buy an umbrella!”

“Oh c’mon Slayer! Sundown is in four hours. I’ll stay out of your way. I’ll be as quiet as the dead. See?” Spike shut his mouth and pressed his lips together tightly.

Buffy shook her head. “I really should just push you outside and toast some marshmallows over the flames.”

Spike shot her his best little lost puppy dog look and tried to plead with her. “Please Buffy? I don’t have anywhere else to go right now.”

“Fine. Stay, but I’m leaving.”

“You don’t have to leave. I’ll go hangout in the basement or the pantry or maybe the linen closet. . .”

“No, I have to go to the magic shop and get Dawn anyway. You just stay here, but I want you out at sundown, got it?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

“And stay out of my room!”

“God Buffy! I don’t need to go into your room . . . anymore.” Spike smiled evilly at her.

Buffy sighed in frustration. “Just don’t do anything I’d have to stake you for. And I mean it!”

“Why Slayer? Is it ‘cause you’d miss me?”

“Yes, I’d miss you . . . like a bad hair day, Spike.”

Buffy opened the door and began to leave.

“Isn’t everyday a bad hair day?” Spike blew her a kiss.

“It’s beginning to look that way.” Buffy slammed the door in his face.

Spike took off his coat and examined it for any fire damage. It was dusty, but it seemed to be all right – nothing a good spit shining wouldn’t help. It smelled like Buffy. All over it – like she’d rolled around on it. Spike noticed the collar was still wet from her tears and there was a long smudge of lipstick on it also. 

Why was she crying? How did she get my coat? Did she think I was dust? Is that why she was crying?

Spike pushed these questions out of his brain. The Devil would be ice-skating in Hell before Buffy shed any tears for him.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Six

Magic Box, 3:30 p.m.

Buffy entered the Magic Box and looked around for Dawn. Anya was ringing up sales while the rest of the gang was sitting around listening intently to a dark haired woman typing furiously on Willow’s laptop computer. As Buffy looked at this stranger the hairs on the back of her neck raised up in warning. Dawn was sitting right next to this woman. Dawn was in danger!

“Dawn!” All eyes turned to Buffy including Alex’s glowing red ones. Buffy went into attack mode and charged towards Alex knocking her off the chair. Alex skidded across the floor where Buffy pounced on top of her.

Buffy’s fists pounded into Alex’s face and chest. “Get away from my sister! You demon bitch!”

Alex head butted Buffy stunning the Slayer briefly. Alex kicked her off and Buffy flew across the room slamming into the display counter. Alex put her hands up and backed away, but never took her eyes off of the very pissed off Slayer now standing up and advancing her way.

Alex’s eyes pleaded with the group to help her. “Mr. Giles! Please! Tell her that I’m not here to hurt anyone. Especially a child!”

Giles stepped in between the two women. “Buffy! It’s all right! She’s, she’s . . .”

Buffy stopped him with a wave of her hand. “She’s a demon!” Buffy grabbed her trophy Troll hammer out of the corner and approached Alex menacingly.

Alex backed away more trying to get some distance between her and the Slayer. Alex pointed at Buffy accusingly. “She has some serious anger management issues! A human with demon strength and the temperament of a vampire – let me guess, she’s the Slayer?”

“I do not have the temper of a vampire!”

Alex laughed. “Oh yeah, ‘cause you usually introduce yourself with a sound beating instead of a handshake?”

Buffy shook the Troll hammer at Alex. “Shut up or I’ll make you shut up - forever!”

Giles put his hand on Buffy’s arm and used his most scolding voice on her. “Buffy! Stop it! You cannot hurt her.”

“Can’t I?”

“No! She only came here for help. We don’t turn away people in need especially when they can be so useful to us.”

Buffy lowered the hammer. “Fine, explain.” Buffy motioned to her little sister. “Dawn come over here by me.”

Dawn hung her head down in embarrassment. “Geez Buffy! Overreact much?”

Buffy was not in the mood for this from Dawn right now. “Shh! We’ll talk about my overreaction later. And anyway, we have a lot to discuss!”

Dawn was confused. “Huh?”

Buffy gritted her teeth and mumbled to her sister. “Bleach blond British bad boy as a house guest ring a bell?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’.”

“Buffy, you don’t understand he . . .”

“I said we’ll discuss this later.” Buffy turned her attention back to the matter at hand. “Now tell me, what’s with Marilyn Manson’s girlfriend here?”

Alex rolled her eyes and looked at Dawn. “I see the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, eh?”

Dawn giggled. Buffy squeezed her sister’s hand to silence her.

Anya stepped out from behind the counter. “This is Alex. She’s a succubus and she’s looking for her brother. If she doesn’t find him soon he’ll probably kill himself and if he does then she’ll be the only one of her family line left alive. Not to mention he’ll probably end up hurting some unsuspecting human girl in the process.”

“Also, she’s offered to pay us in information, Buffy.” Giles interjected. “She has vast knowledge of ancient languages that no living human being could possibly have. Her help would be an invaluable tool for us. She could unlock secrets that would help us fight so many . . . we could have a detailed analysis of . . .”

Buffy held up her hand to her watcher. “Whoa Giles! Stop drooling! And back up, I need the whole story. Especially the details on how her brother might be hurting unsuspecting human girls.”

Giles pulled out a chair for Buffy. “Sit. We’ll tell you.”

About ten minutes later, Buffy wrinkled her brow and looked at the woman with the red teary eyes. “Okay, so what you’re saying is we need to find a love sick and suicidal sex demon before he goes on a breeding binge then what? Jumps off a bridge or something?”

Alex nodded. “Well, sort of . . . when my kind gets this despondent they go into sexual overdrive. This basically means they try to mate as much as they can, but there’s a catch. They throw our Rulebook out and become as evil as they can get.”

Buffy snorted at the word – Evil. “Evil as in what?”

“They’ll do anything to have whoever they want and if they can’t fool the human into mating, they will rape them. After that happens, there’s no going back. It is the duty of the next of kin to such an incubus or succubus to carry out their sentence for breaking our sacred law. It would be my duty to kill my own brother. I don’t want to have to do it. That’s why we have to find him before he . . . before he . . .” Alex’s voice cracked and a single tear fell from her eye. “He’s all my mother and I have left. All the rest of my siblings are already gone.”

Dawn handed Alex a tissue. “How many brothers and sisters did you have?”

“Two hundred and seventeen. And now they’re all gone. Charley and I are the youngest. My mother will die if anything happens to either of us. And if my mother dies, I will perish.”

Buffy thought of her own mother’s death and how lost she would be if she didn’t have Dawn to lean on. It would definitely kill her if she were left all alone with no family.

“Alex, I’ll help you find him.”

Alex looked up at the young Slayer and smiled through her tears. “Thank you.”

Buffy stood up and tried to take command of the situation. “Okay, we should stop sitting here talking about finding Charley and start looking. Let’s go!”

“Um, Buffy?” Willow asked quietly.

“Yeah?”

“We were just about to do a location spell on Charley. And as soon as that is done we’ll be able to pinpoint his location.”

Buffy’s face turned a light shade of pink. “Oh! And I came in and interrupted you guys with the kicking and the punching didn’t I?”

The Scooby gang nodded silently.

“Oops, sorry.”


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Seven

Magic Box, 5:00 p.m.

Buffy sat at the reading table with Dawn as they waited for Willow, Tara and Giles to complete the spell with Alex. Anya was busy with a customer and completely oblivious to the heated exchange going on between the two sisters.

“I can’t believe you just let him in the house without asking me! He may have a v-chip in his head, but he can still be dangerous in the creepy ‘I wanna bop Buffy’ kinda way.”

Dawn pouted at her older and very bossy sister. “He just showed up all beaten up and dusty begging to hide in the basement. And after all he’s done for us lately, I couldn’t say no. And anyway you weren’t supposed to be home until after four. He was going to find a new place tonight, so what you didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt you.”

“I don’t care, Dawn! You know how I feel about letting vampires in the house, especially Spike!”

“Buffy! You invited him back in again, it’s not like he couldn’t have just broken in if he’d wanted to. At least he asked one of us.”

Buffy was speechless. After the whole taking a beating from Glory and not giving Dawn up, Buffy had re-invited him on the condition he wouldn’t come in without permission.

“But …” Buffy searched for an argument to her sister’s point.

“But what? I know you don’t like him or whatever, he knows that. But I like him. He’s saved my butt on more than one occasion and I’m not going to forget it. If he needs my help well then, damn it, I will help him even if it pisses you off!”

“God Dawn! Harsh much?”

“Well what would you have done if he’d woken you up at five in the morning telling you some random demons blew up his crypt?”

“I . . .”

Dawn didn’t let her finish. “You would’ve told him to drop deader and shut the door in his face. And you know what the saddest part is? He’d still say he loves you, he’d still die for you and you couldn’t care less. So don’t tell me I’m harsh!”

Buffy was livid and about to blow in a major way. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Dawn! How I feel about Spike is my own business. I’m the adult here and I make the decisions about who can and cannot stay in our house! And who are you to say that I wouldn’t have let him in? Did you ever think that maybe it pisses me off that he asked you instead of me?”

Dawn didn’t know what to say. Did her sister just say she was upset Spike went to her little sister instead of her?

“Huh?”

Just then Willow came scurrying out from the back room. “Hey Anya?”

Anya looked up from the cash register. “What is it?”

Willow looked a little pale. “Um . . . do you have a band aid or something?”

“I’ll get the first aid kit.” Anya rummaged underneath the counter for it.

Alex stepped out of the back room holding her arm. “You might want to get a mop and bucket too.”

Buffy looked at the blood dripping down the demon girl’s arm. “What did you do?”

Alex sighed. “I let Giles do the ritual bleeding. I told him I could do it myself. I am so not paying for his dry cleaning!”

A shocked and blood covered Giles emerged from the back room followed closely by Tara. His shirt, jacket and face were splattered with blood. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and began to wipe the blood off of his spectacles. “I think that went well. Right, so, the spell is complete. We have two possible locations of where you brother might be.”

Alex looked very confused. “Two locations? There should only be one location. That is unless I have other relatives running around town.”

Buffy looked very annoyed. “Great! Are they horny and suicidal too?”

Alex chose to ignore the Slayer’s comments. “Where are the locations?”

Tara put their map of Sunnydale on the table and pointed to the two locations circled in red. “According to this he’s either in the area around the Southside Auto Body Shop or in the area around the Bronze.”

Alex smirked. “Do single girls hang around auto body shops?”

Buffy thought a moment. “Only girls like Amy Fischer.”

Alex grabbed her backpack and put her sunglasses back on. “The Bronze it is!”


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Eight

Revello Drive, 6:49 p.m.

It was twilight time. Spike was out on the sidewalk in front of the Summers home debating on where to go to find a new place to live. He was done with cemeteries; they were just too obvious.

He thought about the demons and vamps whom had come looking for him. “Stupid gits! They’ll never leave me alone.”

He was hungry and thirsty and he had one hundred dollars in his pocket. He needed to get himself pissed drunk on blood and beers. He’d worry about his accommodations later.

“I’ll probably end up in the sewer tonight or maybe the trunk of my car. I hope those demons didn’t find my car. Bloody Hell!” Spike turned on his heel and headed in the direction of The Bronze.

The Bronze, 7:10 p.m.

The gang stood outside the Bronze with all their attention turned towards the sex demon who was orchestrating this particular field trip to their favorite hangout.

Alex took a deep breath and composed herself for her speech. “Okay, ladies! Except you Dawn, you’re too young.”

Dawn frowned. “Too young for what?”

“Too young to be doing what we are going to be doing.” Alex looked around to see if anyone other than the Slayerettes were looking at her. The coast was clear and she morphed herself into a lovely looking Asian woman in cute black mini dress.

Buffy gaped at her. “Wow! That’s really . . . Wow!”

Alex cut her off. “Yeah, yeah whatever. Now listen up! I want you to clear your minds of reality. Concentrate on fantasy, sexual fantasy.” Alex looked at Tara and Willow accusingly as the two women stood holding each other’s hand.   
“Sexual fantasies that involve men. Got it? Tara? Willow? Just for the next few hours try to be heterosexual?”

Tara tried to protest. “B-but. . .”

“No butts! If you have to think about girls, put it in the context of a threesome. Charley doesn’t hit on lesbians, it’s a waste of his time.”

Dawn finally understood what the girls were really going to do, including Alex. “So, you’re going to try to get your brother to hit on you? That’s just so gross!”

Alex nodded in agreement. “Whatever works. I need to keep him safe.”

Anya was very excited at the prospect of flirting. It was something she didn’t have much experience with. “So you want us to think about any guy?”

Alex checked her face in her compact mirror. “Yes. Drum up your favorite fantasies. Anything you want, go wild. It could be Brad Pitt or Harrison Ford or the UPS guy for all I care. You just have to be open to it. Charley will pick up on the vibe and he will be become your own personal fantasy.”

Anya jumped in excitement. “Really? Anyone I want? Thank goodness Xander had to work late tonight!”

All the gang looked at Anya with surprise. Anya shrugged it off. “It’s just a fantasy! Right?”

Giles stepped forward with Dawn. “What pray tell shall Dawn and I do while all this ‘flirting and fantasizing’ is going on?”

Alex looked to Buffy for an answer. Buffy smiled at her watcher. “I don’t know Giles. You could pimp us out, maybe?”

“I certainly will not be pimping anyone out! I’m a watcher for pity’s sake!”

Dawn put her hand on his shoulder. “We could get a snack.”

“I think I’ve lost my appetite.”

Alex snapped her fingers. “Hey! Focus here! Are we ready to go or not?”  
The whole group stepped to attention and replied in unison. “YES!” Alex turned and headed to the front door while the rest followed behind her.

Giles groaned and whispered to Dawn. “It’s going to be a long night. I can tell.”

Dawn pouted and crossed her arms in front of her. “It’s gonna totally suck!”

Spike sat in a dark corner of The Bronze sipping on his beer and watching the human world go by. He was lost in thought again about the Slayer and how she had looked this afternoon. He couldn’t shake the image of her sitting on the floor so distraught with those big tears dripping down her pretty little face. She’d been clutching his coat.

“Crying on the leather! Why?”

Spike lifted the collar of his coat to his nose and sniffed it for the thousandth time that day. It was her scent and it was driving him insane. The possibility that she had been even the slightest bit put out over his demise made him excited. Let alone the fact that she looked as if her little world had come crashing down because of his death. He felt like if he had pushed her just a little bit more, maybe she would have . . . “No! That’s just too ridiculous. She hates me.” He mumbled to himself.

Spike’s eyes refocused on the crowd when he saw a group of familiar girls. There was Red and her girlfriend Tara, Anya, the Slayer and some cute Asian woman all casing the joint. Spike had decided to go over and find out what they were up to when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Hey Spike!”

“Niblet? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be home with the babysitter?” Giles walked by Spike’s sight line and Spike laughed and pointed at the watcher. “Oh, there he goes!”

“Spike! I’m fifteen! I’m not a baby! Geez!”

Spike lit up a cigarette. “Sorry, I forgot. You’re so very mature.”

“Shut up, oh evil undead one!”

Spike stuck his tongue out at Dawn and squeezed her chubby little cheek with his thumb and forefinger making her squeal.   
“Dork!” Dawn punched the vampire in the arm.

“Aw, Dawn! That’s so mature!”

“Hey! Just remember who took you’re sorry demon ass in last night! Me!” Dawn paused and decided to mess with him the only way she knew how. “Not that Buffy wouldn’t have let you in.”

Spike was interested in this game. “Come again?”

“I let you in. Not Buffy.”

“But you said she would have?”

“Yeah, I think she was a little insulted that you didn’t come to her first. I predict that some day if you keep being a good little vampire she might actually stop hating you. You could actually graduate from utter disgust to mild dislike!”

“Yeah well, here’s hoping for the highly unlikely!” Spike tipped his beer to the teenager and took a large gulp. “So, what are you really doing here? What’s the Scooby gang up to?”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “The girls are trying to get picked up by some horny sex demon.”

Spike took a drag off of his cigarette and laughed. “Funny one, bite size!”

“I’m not kidding.”

“Bloody Hell!” Spike threw his arms up in disgust, once again turned on his heel and strode away from the Slayer’s little sister. As he left she could here him say, “Put a stake in me! I’m done!”


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Nine

The Bronze, 8:16 p.m.

Buffy split from the rest of the girls. Tara and Willow were by the bar chatting up a couple of guys and giggling with each other. They actually looked like they were having a good time doing this.

Anya’s tactic was to walk up to each individual male she saw without a woman and say something like: “Hello there! I’m Anya. Are you interested in buying me a drink and flirting with me?”

Alex was the only one keeping a cool head about this. Buffy supposed that the succubus had a lot of practice with this sort of thing. Alex had separated from the rest of them and ended up on the dance floor with several men dancing and drooling all over her.

Buffy watched as Alex took her time sizing each one of the men up and making her decision as to whether or not he could be her brother. Buffy waved in Alex’s direction to see if she was having any luck. Alex shook her head and mouthed the words “none of these guys”.

Buffy sighed. She didn’t want to be here doing this. It was terminally embarrassing and kind of naughty. 

“Hmmm . . . naughty, bad, taboo, forbidden,” she thought smirking to herself.

Buffy made her way to the opposite side of the dance floor and staked her claim in one spot. She began to dance as if she knew she was being watched by all the men in the entire club. And she was. That was when she saw him out of the corner of her eye. The bleach blond vampire was there standing still in the midst of the writhing humans. Smug smile on his face and ice blue eyes devouring her – he could make her feel violated with just one look.

“This must be his favorite thing to do.”

He approached her slowly, stalking through the crowd to reach her.

“Hello, pet. Nice night for it.”

“Spike! What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be finding a rock to crawl under and call it home?”

“What? And miss my favorite slayer dance like a go-go girl in a cage? I think not!”

“I have no time for you right now. I’m busy. I’m doing some slayer-related dancing.”

“Really? Trying to make the dead stiffer than they already are?”

“You really are disgusting.”

“I know, but you love me anyway.”

Buffy burst out laughing and walked away from him. Spike followed her towards the bar where Giles and Dawn were sharing a blossoming onion. The watcher and the teenager watched as Buffy again tried to escape the pesky vampire’s advances.

Buffy turned and faced Spike again. “Beat it Spike! I’m not in the mood for your crap right now. I swear if you don’t leave I’ll . . .”

“You’ll what? Stake me? Chop my head off? Put me in an ashtray?” Spike patted his mouth and pretended to yawn. “So boring, Slayer!”

Buffy grabbed the stake hidden in her boot and waved it in his face. “You wanna try me?”

Spike took one big step and closed the gap between them. He put his face right into hers. He could feel the heat radiating off of her body and smell the scent of her perfume envelope him. “Always.” He whispered.

Buffy scowled at him. “Eew! Stop it! I’m through playing with you tonight! Just because you can’t kill me physically doesn’t mean I’m going to let you annoy me to death!”

Buffy grabbed the collar of his coat and dragged him out the nearest exit, which happened to be by the alley. She pushed him out the door roughly and slammed his face up against the brick wall. Pinning his hands behind his back she hissed in his ear. “Get lost! Do you hear me? I need to do my job right now. I’ve got places to be and demons to slay.”  
Spike’s tone changed from playful to painfully serious. “Why don’t you do your job then? Why not just kill me?”

“Huh?”

“Come on Buffy! I love you! You hate me! I want to kiss you and you want to kill me! So why won’t you?”

Buffy let go of Spike’s hands and stepped away from him. “You’ve lost it!”

“Oh, have I? I think you’re the one who’s lost it, sweetheart!”

“Me? I’m not the one in the alley here begging for my death!”

“And I’m not the one who broke down in hysterics this afternoon when she thought that her most hated enemy was a big pile of dust!”

Buffy’s jaw dropped at his accusation. “You are completely insane! I would never…”

Spike grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back up against the wall. “Stop it! Stop lying to me!” He kissed her full on the mouth and pressed his body up against hers trapping her between himself and the wall.

Buffy was so shocked she didn’t know what to do as his cool mouth tried desperately to explore hers. She opened her lips to protest but only found that it gave his tongue the entrance he’d been waiting for. For that brief moment she was helpless against the wall, helpless against him. She gave up and let him kiss her enjoying the feel of his mouth on hers.

Her hands traveled up to his chest where she clutched the front of his tee shirt. Bunching the fabric in her fists, she pulled him closer and then violently tossed him across the alley.

Spike smashed into the dumpster and landed in a heap on the ground. Buffy bolted. She ran as fast as she could to get away from what had just happened. 

Buffy’s feet pounded the pavement as she ran down the street not sure where she would end up. As she turned a corner she noticed the street sign read Revello Drive. She had run all the way home and hadn’t even noticed.

Digging into her pocket for her keys she slowed and made her way up the steps of her house. As she tried to fit the key into the lock Buffy started to cry for the second time that day. She could not deal with this. She could not accept what she had just let him do to her.

“Why? Why do I let him get to me? Why don’t I just stake him and get it over with?” she thought.

Buffy’s fingers fumbled with the keys and she dropped them on the porch. Then she saw a white hand with black nail polish reach over and pick up the keys.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Ten

Summers Residence 9:03 p.m.

Spike fit the key into the lock on the door and opened it for her. Buffy slowly lifted her head and looked up into Spike’s face. She opened her mouth to speak but no words would come.

He reached out his hand and wiped away the tear that had just escaped from her eye. Leaning in close he gently kissed her forehead and stroked her hair. “One question, Slayer. Would you have let me in last night or would you have kicked me out into the morning light?”

The power of speech returned to her suddenly and she replied quietly. “I would have let you stay.”

Spike stepped inside the house and tugged her hand gently to get her to follow him inside. He led her into the living room. “Would you have let me stay on the couch?”

Buffy’s eyes were wide and still clouded with tears as he led her over to the couch and motioned for her to sit with him. “Yes, I would have let you stay on the couch.”

Buffy sat down next to the leather-clad vampire and studied him. In the five years she had known him, he had been so many things. A deadly opponent, a reluctant collaborator, a thief, a stalker, a protector and a love sick admirer. She thought she was able to deal with him and all the faces that he wore, but lately she had been unable to reconcile why an evil demon such as Spike could be so good. The way he was looking at her just then was scaring her more than if he had just announced that his chip had malfunctioned and he was about to rip her throat out and eat her.

Spike hesitantly reached up and smoothed her hair away from her face and again wiped away the remnants of her tears. Tilting her chin up to look into her eyes his expression became very serious. “If I had asked you, would you have let me stay upstairs?”

In barely a whisper Buffy replied. “I don’t know.”  
Spike’s fingers wandered onto her shoulder where they began to slide the strap of her tank top off onto her bare arm. “Yes you do. You know exactly where you would have let me stay.”

Buffy closed her eyes and an image of her and Spike up in her bedroom doing some very un-slayer like activities washed over her like a heat wave. Her face flushed pink with embarrassment and then she felt Spike’s cool lips began a torturously slow assault on her shoulder and neck. Every kiss and lick made her pant in anticipation.

“Answer me, Slayer. Where would you have put me for the night?”

Buffy bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut. She did not want to answer that question. She didn’t need him to know what she would or wouldn’t have done. Why am I letting him do this? His mouth was at her ear gently kissing and biting her tiny earlobe. “Answer me. Please . . . Buffy.”

Buffy turned her face towards his and opened her eyes. Looking straight into his sky blue eyes she tried to think of a witty comeback, an insult, a lie, anything. Finally, she said it and meant it. “I would have let you stay anywhere you wanted to be.”

This time it was she who kissed him on the mouth, her tongue searching for his. Spike responded in kind letting his tongue duel with hers. He shrugged out of his leather duster and let it fall onto the floor by the couch. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in closer. Breaking the kiss briefly he held her face in his hands. “Where will you put me for tonight?”

Buffy said nothing as she grabbed the back of his head and resumed the embrace that he had interrupted. Spike moaned in agreement and broke the kiss only briefly again to remove his black tee shirt to reveal his “well muscled” chest. Buffy’s short fingernails raked tiny scratches on his chest as he gently pushed her down on the couch.

A little voice in the back of Buffy’s brain was screaming at her now. 

This is wrong, Buffy! You cannot do this with him. He will never leave you alone ever again. Once you let him do this he will chase you until the end of time and you will never be able to escape.

Buffy gasped as the thoughts raced through her brain. 

He will never leave you alone ever again. She fought the urge to kick him off of her body and thought for a moment. Good. He’ll never leave me alone. That means I’ll never be alone again. And I need him right now. I need him.

Spike’s mouth was on her neck and his hand was in her hair. In between kisses he panted with desire. “I need you too, Buffy. I need you too.”

Oh God! He read my mind!

Spike smiled wickedly and continued to make his slayer moan underneath him.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Eleven

The Bronze 9:41 p.m.

Spike squeezed in between Dawn and Giles at the bar. They looked as if they were done with their "blossoming onion"?

“Oh my God! They put it back on the menu? Brilliant! Are you two going to finish it?”

Giles looked at Spike and then looked at the fried onion. The watcher suddenly remembered Spike and the Wheatabix and a mug of warm blood. He felt his stomach churn. “No, go right ahead. I’ll be in the men’s room - vomiting.” Giles slipped off the bar stool and rushed over to the restrooms.

“Fabulous, all the more onion for me. How about you, Bite Size?” Dawn smiled at how excited this vampire was getting over a stupid barroom snack. 

“Knock yourself out, Spike.”

She watched Spike munching on the onion and felt that something just wasn’t right. And then it hit her. “Hey! Where’s Buffy?”

“Damned if I know. Last I saw she was bumping and grinding on the dance floor over there.”

Dawn started to get really worried now. “What are you talking about? She dragged your butt outta her over a half an hour ago.”

Spike’s mouth filled was with onion as he looked at Dawn in confusion. “Huh?” was all he could manage to say.

“You just left with her. You said something that pissed her off as usual and she pulled you outside. She’s been gone almost forty minutes.”

“That is ridiculous! I’ve been in the game room playing pool since I last saw you. I haven’t even talked to Buffy tonight!”

Dawn was pissed now. What the Hell was Spike trying to pull? “But I saw you right over there . . . oh crap!”

Spike swallowed another mouthful. “What?”

“I’ve gotta find Alex. Where did she go?”

“Who’s Alex?”

Dawn searched the club for Alex’s Asian girl form and finally she decided it might be better just to yell for her. “Alex!”

A tall lanky red head in a blue tank top and leather pants turned around. “Yes?”

Dawn looked at her disappointedly. “Oh no. Sorry, I was looking for a friend.”

The red head began to shrink and morph into the dark haired demon girl with the now familiar red eyes.

Spike gaped. “What the …”

Alex smiled at the teenager. “No Dawnie, it’s me. What’s up?”

Dawn grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled her off to the side. “I think I know where your brother is.”

Alex’s eyes darted around the room. “Where? Oh my God, where?” 

Dawn pulled on Alex’s arm and dragged her to the door.

Spike got up and followed the two girls, calling after them. “What the Hell is going on?”

 

Buffy felt high. Spike’s hands were everywhere on her body at once. She could feel the vibration of his low growl rumble through her entire body.

His hands pulled her tank top down to reveal her breasts and she whimpered as his cool mouth descended upon her left breast. Gently he suckled at her erect nipple teasing it with his tongue.

She became acutely aware of his growing erection pressing up against her thigh as he grinded into her.

Buffy grabbed his hair and pulled his head up from her chest. Staring back at her were Spike’s eyes and what she saw in those blue eyes wasn’t evil or violent or dirty – it was just pure desire and love.

“Spike?”

“Yes, luv?”

“Let’s go up stairs.”

Spike rose and helped her to her feet. He then lifted her up into his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist. As he held her and began to kiss her mouth again they were both unaware of the three people standing in the dark on the front porch watching them through the large front window.

Dawn blinked in disbelief. “I do not believe I’m seeing this!”

Spike let a low growl escape from deep in his throat. “I don’t care who that git is. He’s dead!”

Alex tugged on Spike’s jacket trying to hold him back. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! No killing! No killing!”

Spike carried Buffy towards the staircase kissing her neck as he walked. Buffy opened her eyes just then and saw the one thing she never thought she’d ever see. In the mirror in the front hall she saw two people. She and Spike were reflected back at her.

In complete confusion she gasped. “Oh my God!”

With a loud crack the front door busted open to reveal Dawn, Alex and a very pissed off vampire. “Sorry Charley! That’s my slayer you’ve got there. I suggest you put her down or else I’m gonna turn you from and incubus to a succubus with one yank!”

Buffy jumped out of Charley’s arms and stepped away from the creature who just a moment ago was about to take her upstairs for a roll in the hay. She stared in horror as the Spikish features melted away to reveal a dark haired young man with glowing red eyes who looked about twenty-one years old. He looked a lot like Alex only he was much taller, over six feet at least.  
Charley backed away slowly from Spike and lifted his hands in the air. “Hey! Whoa man! Relax! I was only giving her what she wanted!” Spike growled fiercely at the incubus and took a threatening step towards him.

Something inside Buffy’s heart broke and she flew through the air pouncing on top of Charley. She pummeled him violently all the while insulting him. “You sick, miserable, demented, twisted, bastard! I will kill you!”

Spike grabbed Dawn and placed her protectively behind him as they watched this scene unfold. Spike would go to Hell before he let anything happen to the little one on account of some horny demon.

The Slayer will take care of this loser.

Alex leaped forward and yanked Buffy off of her younger brother. It took all of the succubus’ strength to restrain the furious slayer from literally punching Charley’s head off.

Charley wiped the blood from his nose and looked at. He began to giggle hysterically at the sight of his own blood. Spike walked over and picked the incubus up by his shirt. “What the hell are you laughing ‘bout sex monkey?”

Charley turned his attention towards his sister and the still struggling slayer. “Why’d you stop her, Alex? Why’d you stop me? I was gonna go out with a bang not a whimper.”

Tears welled up in Alex’s eyes as she stared at the demented young man who was her brother. “Charley! Damn you! You were going to rape her and then make me kill you! You know the law. I had to stop you! I couldn’t – I just couldn’t kill you!”

“Alex! I would never do that to you! Why do think I picked her? I came here ‘cause I knew I could find the Slayer in this God forsaken town. I was going make love to her and when we were done, I would let her see me for what I truly am. Then she would have put me out of my misery.” 

Spike shook his head. “ ‘Suicide by Slayer’. Well, ‘A’ for originality.”

Charley’s eyes overflowed with the tears he’d been trying so hard to contain. Buffy stopped struggling in Alex’s arms and listened to the cries from the shape-shifting demon before her.

Charley looked at Buffy plaintively. “You can still end my suffering, Slayer. I know you’ve got weapons around here somewhere. There’s a stake in your coat over there. Those work on us too, you know. We don’t burst into dust, but you can stop the beating in our broken hearts.”

Alex blinked away her tears and whimpered at her brother. “Oh Charley! What has happened to you?”

“I can’t take it anymore Alex! We have no place in the human world and we have no place in the demon world either. We’re over! Extinct!”

Alex shook her head. “No! No we’re not! We just need to do things differently.”

Charley laughed at Alex again. “Bull shit! I can’t change my nature, Alex! Rachel leaving me proved that point quite well!”

Alex tried to reason with him. “That’s because you weren’t honest with her from the beginning! We cannot hide behind the glam with them anymore. They don’t like it.”

Charley lifted his chin towards Buffy and smiled. “She did.”

Buffy slipped out of Alex’s arms and let herself sink to the floor. Covering her eyes with her hands she shook her head in disbelief of what she was hearing. The truth of what had just happened had come crashing down around her. Everyone knew what she had done, how would she ever live this down?

Dawn rushed over to Buffy and put her arm around her. “Buffy? Buffy? Are you O.K?”

“He’s bloody off his rocker! Get him outta here.” Spike pushed Charley towards his sister.

Alex motioned to her brother to come closer. “Come on Charley, it’s time to go home.”


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Twelve

Summers Residence, 10:23 p.m.

Giles, Tara, Willow and Anya walked through the broken front door of Buffy and Dawn’s house. Giles saw Buffy on the floor with Dawn and rushed over very concerned. “Buffy! What’s wrong? What happened here?”

Anya examined the doorframe. “It’s all right Buffy. Xander will fix the door for you.” Tara and Willow glared at Anya and hushed her. “What? He’ll do it for free!”  
Buffy snapped back into reality. She had to tell them. As much as she hated to do it, she had to accept the consequences of her actions in all of this. She had to tell them the truth.

Buffy looked at Giles and then pointed to Charley and started to stutter out her confession. “He, he was - he looked just like . . .”

Spike interrupted Buffy’s speech. “He looked just like Riley! Yeah, good old soldier boy come back to sweep the Slayer off her feet again! Isn’t that right lover boy?” Spike grabbed Charley by the back of the neck and pinched – hard.

Charley hissed in pain. “Yeah! That’s right. I looked like Riley!” Spike squeezed again. “Now what do you say to the lady?” Charley rolled his eyes at Spike.

Alex crossed her arms and scowled at him. “Charles Pierre Laurent! Apologize to Buffy or else I will let the vampire make you really wish you were dead!”

Charley cleared his throat and winced again as Spike put more pressure on his neck. “I’m very sorry, Ms. Summers. I did not consider the consequences my actions would have on your feelings. Please accept my apology.” Charley looked to Alex. Can we go back to Malibu now?”

“No Charley. You’re going home.”

“That is home!”

“No. I’m sending you home to Mother.”

“What? Alex no! I can’t! She’ll put me in therapy – again!”

Spike shook Charley and pinched him one more time before letting him go. “Newsflash Sex Offender! You are in desperate need of therapy!”

Alex took her brother’s arm roughly. “Tough shit, Charley! I did two decades in therapy to get as normal as I possibly can be. Apparently you didn’t listen to a damn thing Dr. Freud had to say.”

Tara interrupted. “Freud? The Freud? You were patients of Sigmund Freud?”

Charley rolled his eyes again. “He was full of crap! Come on Alex! When have you ever had penis envy?”

Alex twisted Charley’s arm. “Look! There’s no more arguing here, little brother. You’re going home and that’s that!”

Charley suddenly regressed into acting like a spoiled two year old. “Oh please, Alex? Please? I won’t be bad anymore, I promise! Just don’t send me to Mother. She’s gonna be so mad!”

“Honestly Charley! You’re two hundred and thirty seven years old and you’re acting like an infant! Suck it up and deal!”

Alex pulled him towards the mirror in the front hall. She placed her hand on it and said a few words in a language which none of the group could understand. The mirror seemed to turn to liquid and swirl around in a circular motion. There was a flash of light and Alex turned to her brother. “Now Charley, go home. Tell Mom to call me on the cell when you get there.”

Charley tried one last time to persuade Alex not to send him away. “Alex. . . please. I . . .”

Alex grabbed Charley’s hands. “I’m doing this because I love you. I don’t want to see you or anyone else get hurt. If you love me Charley, you’ll go.”

Charley hung his head in shame. “I love you, Alex.” Alex reached up and grabbed her brother’s neck. She pulled him in and kissed his forehead.

Charley wrapped his arms around Alex and hugged her. “Bye, Alex.” With that Charley stepped into the spinning vortex of light and disappeared through the looking glass.

The group stared at the mirror in astonishment and Alex’s cell phone rang. Alex answered on the first ring. “Hi Mom! He’s there? Great, I know. I’ll call you tomorrow to confirm or deny his version of the story. Love you too. Bye.”

Willow was amazed. “They have cell phones in other dimensions?”

Alex didn’t understand. “Huh? Not that I know of.”

“Well, then where did you send him?”

“I sent him home - Manhattan.”

They all stared at the mirror again. Willow thought a moment. “Teleportation spell?”

Alex put her cell phone away. “Yep. Sure beats waiting in line at the airport.”

Willow pleaded with Alex. “You’ve gotta teach me that one.”

Giles helped Buffy off the floor and hugged her protectively. “Thank God that’s all over.”

Willow approached Buffy and rubbed her arm gently. “Buffy? Are you sure you’re going to be all right? You don’t look so good.”

Buffy shrugged and shivered. “I think I just need a really long shower and some time alone.”

“Are you sure ‘cause we can stay and take your mind off the whole ‘Demon in Riley’s clothing’ thing.”

“Thanks, Will, but I really, I’m fine. I just really need to be alone right now.”

Willow pulled her best friend in for a hug. “OK, but we’ll talk about this tomorrow. Try to get some rest.”

Giles went over to Buffy and hugged her again. “I’m just happy you’re all right.”  
“I’m fine, Giles. Go home to your books, I know you’re dying to do some follow up research.”

“Am I that transparent?”

“Yes. But in a good way.”

“Good night, Buffy.”

Tara hugged Buffy and then grabbed Willow’s hand to lead her out the door. “Bye Buffy.”

Anya stood in front of Buffy and hugged her awkwardly emulating what she had seen the others do. “I’ll send Xander over tomorrow to fix the door. For free.”

Buffy laughed at her. “Thanks, Anya. For everything.”

Alex pushed past Spike to reach Buffy. “Slayer. I can’t thank you enough for helping me find him. I am so sorry he hurt you. I promise you he won’t be doing that to anyone else for a very long time.”

“He didn’t hurt me, he just freaked me out – a lot.”

“I think he did hurt you, Buffy. Take care of yourself and if you ever need the help of a shape shifting sex demon . . .”

“You’ll be the first one I call.”

“I’ll hold you to that promise, Alex.” Giles called from the broken doorway.

“Goodbye, Buffy.” Alex extended her hand to the slayer.

Buffy grasped her hand and shook it. “Goodbye, Alex.”

Alex patted Dawn on the head and turned back to look at Buffy and Spike. “Better keep your eyes on this one. She’s gonna break hearts someday.” Alex followed the watcher out the door.

Spike gently placed his hand on Buffy’s shoulder. “Buffy? Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

Buffy flinched at his touch and turned away from him. “Dawn. You really should get ready for bed. I’ll be in the shower.” Buffy turned and silently walked up the staircase.

Spike looked to Dawn. Dawn could see the hurt and disappointment on his face. She started to say something but Spike stopped her by raising his hand and shaking his head. “Just don’t tell the Scooby gang what really happened. They’ll probably try to blame me for it.”

“But it wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah, but the Slayer thinks it is.”

Spike walked out on the front porch and watched as the girls piled into Giles’ red convertible. Giles and the succubus were exchanging telephone numbers and email addresses.

Alex put Giles’ business card into her backpack. “Mr. Giles, you can call me with any questions, any time, really I don’t sleep much.”

“Thank you, it will be such a help to have an experienced consultant in matters of translation.”

Willow waved at Alex. “And you need to get me that teleportation spell too!”  
“Okay, Willow, I will translate it for you.”  
Giles shook the succubus’ hand. “Good night, Alex.”

“Bye.”

Giles got into the driver’s seat and pulled away down the street.

Spike walked down to the sidewalk and approached Alex. “Hey! Alex, is it? Can I talk to you?” Alex nodded yes to the vampire. “Okay, demon girl, I need to know something.”

“And that would be?”

“Why did he pick me? I mean why me of all people, why would he use my image to do that to the Slayer?”

“He didn’t pick you.”

“Come again?”

“We don’t choose our partner’s fantasy for them. Whatever Charley did to her was what she fantasizes about either consciously or subconsciously anyway.”

“So you’re telling you’re telling me that Buffy secretly wants me to . . .”

“Make love to her? Yes. But she probably didn’t know that until it almost happened.”

“With your God damned brother and not me.”

“Yeah, wow! That must have been really weird for you to see.”

“Weird and bloody infuriating! I guess that’s why they call you sex demons. Your evil mission is to mess up everyone’s love life!”

“Yeah and yours is to cause as much pain as possible to human beings until you get your sorry undead ass staked!”

“Good point. But I’m not like that anymore.”

Alex laughed. “A good vampire? Ha! That’s a laugh!”

“Hey! Don’t bloody laugh! I haven’t killed a human being in over two years!”

“Why’s that? Somebody curse you?”

“Well, sort of . . . long story. Point is I love her! Everything I do, I do so she can have a better and longer life! And your bloody brother just fucked up the only chance I ever could have had! She’ll never even consider me now! Did you see the look on her face? She was even more disgusted with me than usual!”

“Hey! I’m sorry fang boy, but who ever said life or love was fair?”

“No one, but just once - just bloody once I’d like to know what it means to love and be loved back - at least by someone other than a lunatic anyway. But then on the other hand that makes perfect sense, because you’d have to be crazy to love a creature like me!” Spike stalked away from the succubus on the sidewalk.

Alex shook her head. “Issues, issues, issues. This whole town needs therapy!”  
Alex got into her car and pulled out her cell phone. She pressed the new speed dial she had just programmed in for Rupert Giles.

“Hello? Mr. Giles? This is Alex. I’m sorry to bother you, but I was just thinking about the location spell we did earlier today. I mean this place is crawling with demons, right? Why not a few more of my kind running around?”

She paused to listen to Giles stutter his way through a dinner invitation and then responded. “Sure, I’m free now. Do you know of anyplace where we can get a decent slice of pizza? Great! I’ll pick you up in a half hour. See you. Bye.”

Alex smiled to herself and checked her hair in the mirror. She blinked her eyes and changed them from red to green. She smirked at her reflection. “Cute, British and smart . . . my kinda guy.” She put the car in drive and sped off into the night.

She didn’t notice the blond slayer sitting on the roof in her bathrobe, still flabbergasted at the conversation Alex had just had with Spike.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Chapter Thirteen

Summers Residence, 11:33 p.m.

Dawn sat on the couch in the living room watching television. She could hear Buffy moving around up stairs. Dawn couldn’t help but wonder where Spike was. Did he find a place to stay? Was he as freaked out as Buffy was? Dawn couldn’t shake the image of Buffy kissing the demon that looked like Spike. She had been smiling and happily letting “Spike” carry her up the stairs. It was so weird. Buffy had always hated Spike or tolerated him anyway, but she’d never given Dawn any reason to think that she might actually like Spike’s attention, until today.

Buffy ran down to the front door carrying three two by fours, a hammer and some nails. She viciously pounded the front door shut securing the wood in place so that no non-vampire demons could get into the house tonight. “Dawn, I’m going out to patrol for a little while. Please go to bed at a decent hour.”

“Okay Buffy, but call if you’re gonna be really late. I’ll get scared if I wake up and you’re not home.”

“I’ll call, I promise.” Buffy ran over and kissed her sister on the forehead. “Bye, sweetheart.”

Dawn watched her older sister leave through the back door and turned her attention back to the television set.

Spike stood in the pile of rubble that was his former “home”. It was all gone. There was nothing left but a bunch of stones and the cover to the tunnel underneath where the old crypt had been. He sighed and walked towards the wooded area next to the cemetery. He felt relief as he spotted his car still hidden by a large oak tree covered in fallen branches.

“At least now I have somewhere to sleep in the morning.” He opened the trunk and began to move the weapons and other belongings to the back seat so that he would be able to fit inside the trunk comfortably. A rustling sound nearby startled him. He grabbed his biggest ax and swung it around to face the oncoming stranger. A hand cam out of the dark and grabbed the ax from his grip.  
“You’re getting slow in your old age, Spike.”

“Slayer?”

Spike turned to face Buffy as she sat herself down on a nearby tombstone and examined his ax.

Buffy looked up at Spike and then at his car. “So, whatcha doin’?” Spike stood in awe of her. Not believing that she was there let alone trying to engage him in conversation.

“Making my bed.”

“No, really?”

“Really! Have you seen what they did to my crypt?”

“So you’re staying in your car?”

“Yeah, trunk’s not so bad. I’ve been in worse places.”

“What if someone steals it during the day and takes you to the beach or something?”

“Well, I’ll chance it for tomorrow and then I’m officially house hunting. Do you know of a good real estate agent?” Buffy shook her head no. “So Slayer, what are you doing here?”

“Looking for vampires to slay, but no such luck. The undead are really dead tonight.”

“Yeah well, you should have seen them last night. They all pulled up a chair and enjoyed the fireworks. Like the bloody Fourth of July it was.”

“Sorry I missed it.” A vampire sprang out from the grave right underneath Buffy’s feet and grabbed her legs pulling her down underneath him.

“What is it with you vampires? You’re always trying to get in between my legs!” Buffy head butted the vamp stunning him.

Spike pulled the vamp off of the Slayer and held him back. “Excuse me, mate! We were trying to have a conversation here!”

“Spike! Back up!” Buffy swung the ax and severed the vamp’s head reducing him to a cloud of dust that blew right into Spike’s face.

“Oh God! All over the leather!”

“Nice ax - very handy. Thanks.” Buffy handed the weapon over to Spike. 

“Anytime, Slayer.” Buffy turned to walk away in the opposite direction when she stopped and looked back at Spike putting the ax into the back seat. 

“We have a two car garage.”

“What?”

“We have a two car garage and mom only had the one car. So there’s room for another car.”

“And that means what? I can park there?”

“Yeah, you can park there. So your car doesn’t get stolen or anything.”

Once they arrived at the house on Revello Drive Buffy went inside and opened the automatic garage door. Spike pulled the Desoto in right next to Joyce’s Camry. The car looked like an anachronism sitting next the Toyota. Buffy shut the door and stood by the entrance to the house. Spike got out and started to clean out the back seat.

“Spike?”

“Yeah, Slayer?”

“ You can stay in here – on the couch.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and hurry up I’m tired.”

Spike followed her into the living room where they found a sleeping Dawn on the couch in front of the television, which was playing an NSYNC concert. Spike shuddered “That music. It’s Awful.”

“I know, but you know what’s worse?” Buffy turned of the DVD player and pressed eject. “She owns it and she plays it over and over again.”

“Here I thought I was evil. That is pure evil.”

“I hate it when she does this. She waits up for me to come home from patrol, but she’s always dead asleep and it’s hell to put her to bed.”

“Here, I’ll do it.” Spike gathered the teenager up in his arms. Dawn mumble and sighed in Spike’s arms.

Sleepily she asked Buffy. “Buffy? Where’s Mom?” Buffy answered the sleeping child with a whisper in her ear.

“She’s in Heaven sweetheart. Mommy’s in Heaven.”

“Okay.” Spike followed Buffy up the stairs to Dawn’s room where he laid the young girl on the bed. Buffy fluffed up the pillows and removed Dawn’s socks. Spike pulled the covers up over Dawn’s body and Buffy busied herself with taking out her barrettes and smoothing out her long brown hair.

Dawn stirred in her sleep and continued her imaginary conversation with Buffy in her dream. “If Mommy’s in Heaven who will take care of us?” Buffy didn’t know what to say. She hated having to accept that their mother was gone and that they had to take care of themselves from now on.

Buffy sighed and was about to answer when Dawn continued asking questions. “Spike? Will you take care of us now?”

Spike knelt down by the side of the bed and smiled at this innocent little girl’s question to him. “Sure, Niblet. I’ll take care of you.”

“Spike?”

“Yes?”

“I really don’t mind it when you call me that anymore. I just pretend I don’t like it.” Buffy smiled as she watched her sister have this sweet conversation with Spike. He looked so interested in hearing her next dreamy question. “You have to tell Buffy.”

“What do I have to tell her?” “You have to tell her you’re not a vampire anymore.”

Spike’s brow furrowed with concern. “But I am, Little Bit, I am.”

“Not on the inside. Just tell her.”

“Go to sleep, Dawn, go back to sleep.”

“Okay.”

Spike patted the girl on the head and left the room without another word. Buffy kissed Dawn on the forehead and followed Spike out.

She saw him descend the stairs and take off his leather coat leaving it on the coat rack. Buffy took off her boots and put them in her bedroom. She had two choices – she could either go to bed or she could join Spike down on the couch. As much as she hated to admit it she wanted to find out why it was that she did what she did with Charley earlier that evening. She needed to know why she was having these weird fantasies about Spike. Was that all they were or was there something more to it?

When she went down to the living room she found Spike sitting in front of the television watching “Haunted Castles of England” on the History Channel. He had a blank expression on his face and as she approached the couch he yawned. It was so weird, she’d never seen a vampire yawn – it was almost too human. Maybe she just never spent enough time with any vampires to get to know the everyday nuances they might possess. Even when she’d been with Angel she’d only been with him for short periods of time and they were usually fighting together or kissing or looking longingly at each other or breaking up. She never saw Angel sitting on a couch watching television just like any other guy. Buffy noticed that Spike had taken off his boots and his socks. She walked over to the couch and sat beside him.

“So you don’t paint your toenails black?”

Spike glanced down at his feet. “No. Nobody ever sees my feet. I barely ever see my feet.”

“I see your feet.”

“Yep, there they are . . .”

“You know I never thought I’d ever say this, but I kinda miss the days when things were simple.”

“Simple? Has it ever been simple?”

“Yeah. Me slayer. Slayer slays demons. Period! God! I wish I could go back to the day when my biggest problem was you and Drusilla!”  
Spike got a faraway wistful look on his face. “Yeah…good times, eh?” He thought a moment and snapped out of his bloody daydream. “Do you really miss those days? I mean Dru and I were a big pain in the ass.”

“Yes but easy compared to say the Master or Adam or Glory. All I had to do was drop a church on your head.”

“Yes, but the Master is dust, Adam’s dead and Glory’s gone. I’m still here.”

“You’re still here. Why are you still here?”

“You said I could stay tonight.”

“No, I mean I should’ve put a stake through you years ago.”

“This conversation is getting more pleasant by the second.”

“No. There has to be a reason. There has to be a reason why I haven’t dusted you.”

“My off beat good looks?”

“There has to be a reason why I was so upset when I thought you were a dust pile this afternoon.”

“That’s why you were crying?”

“I’m good at what I do and you should be long gone.”

“Okay, Slayer, you’re starting to freak me out. Maybe I should go.”

Buffy grabbed his arm. “Wait! I’m having one of those things. What do you call them? An episiotomy?”

Spike snorted. “I’m quite certain you are not having one of those. I think you might mean an epiphany?”

“Yeah! Don’t you get it? We’re the same.”

“What?”

“Same coin, different sides.”

“Buffy! Snap out of it! You’re just tired. You need some sleep.”

“No! I get it!” Buffy looked up to the ceiling as if to address the Powers that be. “I finally get it! Slayer - Vampire. Good – Evil. Alive – Dead. Soul – Soulless. Young – Old. Female – Male. And we fight. Boy, do we fight! But no one ever wins. It’s a stalemate. We cancel each other out.”

“So now that you’ve come to this startling revelation, what does that mean?”

“This has to end.”

“Should I start running for my un-life now? ‘Cause you know I can’t fight you anymore thanks to the hardware in my brain.”

“No. I don’t want to fight with you anymore. I just have to accept this thing between us.”

“Oh, so now you agree we have a thing?”

“Yes. And it’s always been there hasn’t it?”

“I think so.”

“I’m tired, Spike. I’m so tired.”

“I know pet. You should go to sleep. It’s been an exhausting day.” Buffy moved towards Spike. He flinched away slightly not sure if she was going try to kiss him or kill him.

“Relax. I just want to lie down.”

“Alright then.” Buffy pushed Spike down onto the couch until he lay flat on his back.

“Um…” he started to speak.

She placed her finger to his lips. “Shh…” Buffy lay down on top of spike and covered them both with the pink blanket. She laid her head on his chest. Spike wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tightly.

“Spike?”

“Mmm?”

“You told Dawn you’d take care of us.”

“I did.”

“Are you sure you can accept a challenge like that? We are very high maintenance.”

“Yes, Slayer, I know. Spike gently stroked her hair and listened to her yawn on his chest. He kissed the top of her head and whispered to the sleeping slayer. “I accept.”


	14. Epilogue

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Wheadon & Company. I’m just borrowing them on the weekends.

“Acceptance”

Epilogue

Summers Residence, 9:03 a.m.

A sleepy Dawn Summers descended the stairs in the quiet house. It was nice not to have Buffy yelling at her to come down to breakfast for once. Dawn went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of orange juice and intended on heading back to bed when she noticed two sets of feet sticking out from under the pink blanket on the couch.

“What the . .?”

There was her sister curled up on top of Spike sleeping quite peacefully.

“Well it looks like they kissed and made up. Here we go again. All aboard the love train. First stop, vampire central station.”

Dawn slowly approached the sleeping couple and gently poked her sister. “Buffy?” She whispered. “What’s going on?”

Buffy raised her head and squinted at her little sister. “I fell asleep.”

“Duh! On top of a dead guy!”

“Shh…don’t wake him. I bet he’s real cranky in the morning.”

Buffy slowly extracted herself from his grip and place his hand gently on his chest.

Dawn looked at the sleeping vampire curiously “Is he stiff?”

“No! He’s undead. Not a corpse.”

“So, what’s up with this Buffy?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are we going to keep him?”

“He’s a vampire, Dawn, not a puppy.”

“Well, it’s not like you haven’t chained him up before.”

“That was different. He was different then – evil. Well more evil than he is now.”

“He doesn’t look evil at all sleeping like that. He kinda looks…”

“Normal?”

“Yeah. Except that whole not breathing thing.”

“Normal everyday dead guy.”

Spike opened one eye and peered over at the Summers sisters. “Ladies, just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I can’t hear you.”

Dawn jumped a foot in the air out of fright. “Geez! Spike! Freak me out much?”

“Always, Niblet.”

Buffy laughed. “Go back to sleep Spike. I’m going to get breakfast ready for her.”

Spike smiled at the two young women gazing down at him. “Oh and can we dispense with the canine analogies? I’m not a bloody dog from the pound.”

Dawn reached out and patted Spike’s head. “Go to back to sleep, Spike. Good boy!”

Spike growled.

Dawn giggled at him. “You’re right Buffy. He is cranky in the morning.”

“Come on Dawn. Let’s go.”

Spike turned over and buried himself under the blanket. As Buffy and Dawn left the room Buffy could hear him muttering. “Bloody high maintenance women. Mission impossible…bloody hell, what have I gotten myself into?”

Buffy smiled and whispered to Dawn “I think we’ll keep him.”


End file.
